NEW YORK — For more than a month during the snowless summer and fall, the U.S. ski and snowboard jumpers were still out on the slopes of the Utah Olympic Park practicing their jumps all thanks to the recent installation of a ramp lined with an innovative artificial snow and giant downward sloping air bag.
The product of multi-national R&D and a major fundraising effort called Project Jump, the new air bag has dramatically increased the volume of the Olympic hopeful’s training while minimizing the chance for harm.
“Our sport is so high-risk, high-reward, and it kind of takes that risk aspect out of it,” Team USA freeskier Maggie Voisin said at a recent promotional event for Visa.